Nuclear war is one that comes up a lot in the warfare topic. It can almost never be justified according to the just war theory. The force of a nuclear bomb could never be proportional to the situation, and the good that one bomb could do if any would almost never outweigh the harm, firstly to the people but also form a Christians point of view (and many others) the harm caused to the land, which would be made redundant for many years would go against Christian teachings.
There are many references in the bible that have a certain, war related meaning, or at least you can relate them to war.
The reference ‘thou shalt not kill’ (exodus 20) says that obviously ‘you should not kill’. There is rarely a war where anyone is not killed, so again you could say that wars in which people are killed are wrong. According to this, it would be near impossible for nuclear war to be right, as you would find it near impossible to use nuclear weapons without killing anyone!
It is known that the blast from the Hiroshima bomb spread radiation for 36miles around, and today, the power of one bomb has increased 750,000 fold from that of the Hiroshima bomb. The results from the use of such a lethal weapon are horrifying. The loss of life would be unimaginable. ‘Thou shalt not kill’, well… my point is obvious.
‘Do unto others as you would want done to you’. Another bible reference (from the book of Matthew in the New Testament) maybe not directly referring to war but it can be related to a war situation. Do not do anything that you would not want doing to yourself, take for example killing. Would you want to be killed… the chances are that you don’t, so don’t kill if you don’t want to be killed. This could be slightly turned around, as in a war situation you may kill people, but those people you may kill would most likely have killed themselves. This does not however justify the killing in war, as then you would have killed, and so on and so forth… the circle would never end.
The bible also speaks of the ‘Crusade’ or ‘Holy War’ (in the book of Exodus). In this reference “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name”, it is however supporting war or suggesting that war is not wrong as the Lord God is a warrior himself.
I am aware that a war does not have to involve killing because you can have governmental and other types where people do not die, but the majority of wars do involve killing in one way or another.
In Exodus it says, “I will sing to the lord, because he has won a glorious victory”, not necessarily saying that the Lord has killed at all, only that he was involved in the war. This would have to be included in the leaflet on warfare. It is not questioning the Lord, as it is not written that Christians should be against war.
There are many more bible references that can be related to war, but none that say war is right or wrong. “Live in peace with one another” (Mark 5:9), this is not saying that you should not go to war, just that you should live in peace. Another example, “Blessed are the peacemakers”, this is not saying that you are not blessed if you go to war or are not a peacemaker. “Forgive those who sin against you”, this could be applied to a war situation as in war it is likely that someone will sin against you, but it neither promotes nor demotes war, it just says you should forgive those people that do.
Liberation theology is another warfare topic that would have to be included in my booklet on warfare. It says that a war could be justified if it were to liberate the oppressed. The reference from Isaiah 61 ‘Set the oppressed free’ shows this. Wars in the old testament of the bible such as ‘David and Goliath’ also show this as they were simply setting the oppressed free.
The Quaker Peace Testimony is not something that is written in the bible, but was created using the bibles teachings. It appeals to the ‘Something of God’ in everyone and refers to us ‘Bearing witness’ to the work we have done together as friends, when not fighting. It shows us the way to use non-violent weapons like love, telling the truth, co-operation, non-violence, imagination and laughter, all weapons that heal instead of the destroy. You could call it a substitute of war, as well as a solution.
The bible never teaches that war is completely and utterly wrong nor that it is similarly right, it only guides you in your decision about war.
